The Steve Jackson Games GURPS Traveller
licence ended when 2015 did, and with that ending comes the feeling that
an era is ending. For nearly two decades they’ve been responsible for
some of the highest quality Traveller
books ever published. Whatever some might feel about
GURPS itself—which seems to raise strong
feelings on both sides—there can be no doubt that their almost thirty
books, six sets of deck plans and one referee’s screen have raised the
bar in terms of quality. The production values, writing, content, and
artwork have been second to none. In addition, the online version of
The Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society
has been regularly published, first weekly then fortnightly, for 16
years and has included some 1200 articles and nigh on 450 editorials, by
nearly 150 authors, since the first issue on 1st February 2000. That’s
some record and only Freelance Traveller
comes close to matching it with close to 1000 articles in 73 issues
across 7 years. That JTAS has been managed by a single editor who
happens to be one of the founding fathers of
Traveller has made it even more special. I’m proud to have
contributed a tiny part of that and I only wish I could have done more.
(Apparently I make the top 15 list of authors by number of
contributions.)

At the time of writing it’s not clear whether Marc Miller will
licence another company in the same way, or whether it will fall to just
Far Future Enterprises itself and Mongoose Publishing, ably supported by
a host of third party publishers, to continue to carry the
Traveller flame. The second edition of the
Mongoose ruleset has been published in the week I write this so there is
already a new look to investigate if not quite a new direction. Sources
close to Marc suggest there may be plans afoot for something else new.
I’ll be keeping an eye out for any news on that front.

I’ve also heard rumours that Marc may be going to release some or all
of the great JTAS content in some other format. Book? PDF? CD-ROM? If
so, it will be great to see all those terrific casual encounters, short
adventures, world descriptions, Contacts! and so on reissued for a wider
audience.

I can’t expect things to stay the same forever, so farewell to JTAS
and the last formal outpost of GURPS Traveller.
I’m sure others will join me in wishing editor Loren all the best for
the future. Thank you for your labours across the years. Change comes to
all things. But the one constant in the Traveller
universe is the wealth of enthusiastic, and often volunteer, fans that
continue to play and write for and support, and, yes, sometimes argue
about, a role playing game that’s entering its fourth decade. I will try
and use that to spur me to play and read and write more.